Luigi's Mansion (I hope this isn't too God-awful.....)

[Eino Keskitalo]

Quirky arrangement! It's well thought out, whole and complete. I like! Keep working on the production side of things - we'll all be rewarded with some good tracks I think!

--Eino

[Rozovian]

I think the kick would fit better in metal, it's a bit too hard for this song. Try adding a bass that plays on the kick, just to give it some more flavor and make it less exposed. It's not a bad kick, but when it's laid bare like in this remix, it sounds unrefined. Follow the trombone's melody, but have the bass play on top of the kick. Also, the toms are terrible. Dude, come on. Tweak or replace.

0:21-0:47 - The melody is exactly the same. You could add small notes leading up to the next longer one. Try it out. If it doesn't end up sounding good, forget it and put the original melody back. But try it out.

1:04 - Add a fill to make drums more interesting. It doesn't have to be a series of toms, it can be some sudden stops or... well, something. See what you can come up with.

1:04 - I think you could lower the strings, possibly the trombone too. Works elsewhere, but there's a little too competition going on in this section.

Also, see if you could add something to occupy the higher frequencies, like a hihat. Doesn't have to be a hihat, but every once in a while, this feels like everything it's cramped into the mids and lows, except the tambourine and the occational little crashes. Some rapid ride hits might work somewhere. And tweak the crashes, they're a little too soft and short.

1:31 - See if you can make this transition a little smoother with a cool fill. Could work well, since it's really simple and calm, then goes to fast and intense. Try it out. If it doesn't work, try something else. If nothing works, leave it as it is now. It could be more interesting, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah, I'm still giving you lists of things to fix, but I'm impressed at how far you've come. Some ppl would have given up already. And btw, the theremin is really sounding cool now. Not saying it sounds like a theremin, but it sounds organic and fits in real well. Nice job!

[Hausdog]

Best suggestions ever. Everybody gets glowing mentions in the writeup. I'm still holding out for a live guitar player. In the MIDI, the toms (UGH! I know exactly what you mean) were snares and that was supposed to be a drum roll. I'll come up with something to vary the melody a little, since it plays 4 times in a 90-second song and I know that's not exactly pleasant.

And I had an idea for how I could make the transition a bit gentler. I'd have the voices hold the note until the end, but I'd have the guitar playing the same note speeding up until it gets to 16ths at 150 bpm [Y/N]?

EDIT: Argh! I sound so sarcastic! I swear I actually DO think his suggestions are really helping me and I WILL thank you all in the writeup if this gets accepted.

FURTHER EDIT:

Okay, I'm gonna put a bass over the drums and lighten the bass. I changed the god-awful toms (how the hell does a soundfont maker get away with using toms to occupy the space snares do in General MIDI?) to drums.

You think grace notes could improve the violin that much? I'm gonna try it.

For the problem of the lack of a higher frequency, I put (past tense, baby! BOOYA!) another violin on top of the one already in the song and then transposed it up an octave.

Expect revised version soon.

[Hausdog]

freewebs.com/gbawesome/lm5.mp3

Man, I wasn't messing around when I said "soon". What do you think? Ignore the stuff off the top and bottom; my computer does that sometimes. What needs doing?

[Rozovian]

Yeah, the bass makes it sound much better. Nice. I'm hearing some extra little melodies thrown in, that's great too, fitting real nice. Plus it gives the remix a better frequency range.

The intro trumpet and the woodwinds in the first part sound very sequenced, so work on giving them some more life. The melodies are ok, but tweak the volume. Long notes could get louder towards the end, which makes them more organic. Some of the short notes should probably be shorter, at least in the intro.

Also, the very first trumpet note is louder than the others. Whether it's due to compression, two notes on the same spot, or just a different velocity setting, it doesn't sound good. The tambourine sounds a little too loud and snares and crashes aren't loud enough.

There's a lot of annoying crackling noise. If you're trying for a vinyl sound, don't let it run through the whole dang song. At 0:43, there's a low string note that I think feels a bit out of place.

Your transition is a cool idea, but it has to be much tighter. I still think a fill would work better. It becomes too long this way, slows everything down, and a row of the same notes sounds all the more sampled when they're this exposed. Do you think it sounds good as it is now?

The break overall is really killing the pacing, and it's way too loud. It comes in a bit too late, and when it's extended as it is now, it's really annoying. Why not make a "theremin" solo there? It's the coolest and most organic sound you have in the whole remix, why not exploit it a little more?

Also, you could work on extending this to contain a finale after the break. Now it's just more of an elevated ending or something of a bonus mini-track.

But as I said, the extra melodies you've thrown in really give it flavor. So far so good, soon further, soon better. Right?

[Hausdog]

Whoo! View # 600.

I'm using the trial version of FL. However, it decided to quit on me so I lost my progress (and so much progress it was) and I'll basically have to start over GO ME!

Just a little update...